Blasphemy! Safe queen dethroned

[Winger Ed.]

I shoot everything I own…..

Yeah, me too.

The only thing I haven't shot is a antique Dan Wesson single shot in .32 rimfire that I got when one of my favorite customers
passed away and his widow gave it to me because she wanted all the guns out of the house.

I'd shoot it, but ammo for it is higher than giraffe lips, even if you can find any.
But it looks really cool hanging on the wall above my desk!

[murf205]

"she wanted all the guns out of the house." That has been the start of more than 1 tale of "how I came across this gun!"

[porthos]

why would someone own a gun to just look at!!!

[Winger Ed.]

"she wanted all the guns out of the house." That has been the start of more than 1 tale of "how I came across this gun!"

Oh yeah.
I've had a few like that.
One was a real fancy Italian flintlock gentleman's pistol from the 17th century, ivory tipped ram rod & all.
It looked like something you'd see in a fancy dueling set.
If it had ever been fired, I sure couldn't tell.

I kept it for awhile............ just to look at.
Then I gave it to my Dad so he could look at it awhile, and when he passed away,
I gave it to my sister so they could admire and look at it too.
And it hasn't been fired yet.

[FISH4BUGS]

I shoot everything I own…..

Up to and including my 1956 5 screw pre 29. Also the 1948 pre 24 44 special.
Oh...the 1924 Savage sporter and the 1921 Winchester 92 both in 25-20.
Gee...I almost forgot...the 1933 S&W Hand Ejector in 32-20.
There are more but you get the idea.
Nope....guns are the used. And I use them all.

[375RUGER]

Some people buy guns as investments, same as gold or silver. Take my buddy for instance, 77yo, he has several unfired firearms and he needs money. Last week I relieved him of a Win 9422, 1 of 500, case hardened. His initial investment yielded a 500%+ increase. Now, somebody cringe. I devalued it before I got home and have put 200+ rounds through it this first week. I like the fact that I can buy a brand new 16-20 yo gun and I'm the first to pull the trigger since it left the factory. I'm going to shoot it especially if I'm going to pay a premium price for it and it's even sweeter knowing there are only 499 others like it.
You can’t take it with you when you die and you can’t take the money.
Fired or not they are all investments and almost all of them are worth more now than they were when purchased new.

[murf205]

Oh yeah.
I've had a few like that.
One was a real fancy Italian flintlock gentleman's pistol from the 17th century, ivory tipped ram rod & all.
It looked like something you'd see in a fancy dueling set.
If it had ever been fired, I sure couldn't tell.

I kept it for awhile............ just to look at.
Then I gave it to my Dad so he could look at it awhile, and when he passed away,
I gave it to my sister so they could admire and look at it too.
And it hasn't been fired yet.

Mine is a FN Mauser 30-06 with "Wards" stamped on the barrel. The stock was a treacherous abomination but a saw to cut the hideous cheek piece off and a rasp to cut off enough lumber to make a campfire, it turned into a very pleasing sporter. The poor guy looked like a whipped puppy when she told him to get rid of it and I told him I only had $125 on me(true) and he said sold. It shoots 220 gr Hornady's into less than an inch.

[Winger Ed.]

I got home and have put 200+ rounds through it this first week. I like the fact that I can buy a brand new 16-20 yo gun and I'm the first to pull the trigger since it left the factory. .

In the mid-80s, one of our vendors came in and told me he wanted me to buy his Remington O3A3.
He was a WWII guy and he'd bought it in the early 50s when the govt. was selling all the surplus stuff.

He went to the armory to buy one, got to talking to the guy, and being a vet that served in the Pacific,
the fella said, "Wait right here"..... then went and got him a unissued, and unfired new one.

In his travels, he used to go past the Fajen place back when people would fly in, land on their property to have stocks fitted.
He had them put a stock on it, and had Fajen send it out to be blued.
It looked like someone's final project from gunsmithing school.
Just beautiful........and still unfired.

I asked if he actually knew what it was worth, and I said I couldn't pay it.
He said he knew exactly what it was worth. And he didn't want his son to have it to sell and buy drugs.
This was when one assembled from parts was going for about $500.


He asked how much I had on me. I had a $100. and a $5 dollar bill. I gave him both.
He gave me back the $5 for Lunch.
A month or so later, he brought in the Redfield 5 star 3x9 he never got around to mounting.
I brought my lunch that day, but had a new hideout $100 bill. He was happy with that.

When gun shows were still worth going to- new bolts in the paper wrapper were $11.00 each.
I got three new bolts to practice welding a new handle on, some bolt handles from Brownell's,
drilled & tapped it for a Leupold scope rail and put in a sport model Timney trigger.
I shot it a lot, killed a couple deer with it, and it loved 170RN cast.
When I quit hunting, I passed it on to my sister and her family because I didn't want my kids to have it.

[murf205]

Ed, can you make a pic of that gun? We would love to see it. Knowing the history behind these guns makes them all the more endearing. I have a Ruger 77 that I bought new as a 7mm Mag in 1981. It was a looong way from accurate so I had Graham Bostick, who is an American Custom Gunmakers Guild member, remove the barrel and send it to Douglas for an exact duplicate contured barrel. He chambered it for 350 Rem and installed it back in my stock in my stock. I sold it later to a friend and he had the late Harry Deal blue the whole rig. When he passed, I bought the rifle back from his son who is not a hunter/shooter. Then, During my Alaska trecking days, Jimmy mcCoullough (McCoullough Rifle Co. Valley Grand , Al) rechambered it to 358 Norma. I don't shoot full snorts anymore in that rifle but it has a history and the handwork of 3 of my old friends on it and that makes it sort of heirloom status, if you will, for me at least.

[FISH4BUGS]

Fired or not they are all investments and almost all of them are worth more now than they were when purchased new.

I started buying full auto back in about 1980, with my last on being 1987 after the ban.
I sold 3 of them in 2011 for the down payment to buy a house.
You would not believe the prices I got for them then, or the prices they fetch today.

[Winger Ed.]

Ed, can you make a pic of that gun? We would love to see it..

Sorry guys.
I sent it along with some of my Dad's guns, including the flint lock pistol to my sister out of state back in 2015.

When I first saw it--- I almost sprinkled like a happy puppy.

Just imagine:
The most beautifully and professionally done sporterize job you ever saw on a 1944 Remington Springfield 02A3. (not the 2 groove barrel)
The stock was done by Fajen from a walnut tree that probably had squirrels running around in it when George Washington was President.
It's the Monte Carlo one with a white spacer and black ebony wood tip.
After some practice, I replaced the bolt handle with one of the in house brand ones from Brownell's that sort of looks like a Rem 700 bolt.
No sling swivels, Fajan's plastic butt plate, and the sport model Timney trigger set at 3 pounds.
Leupold one piece scope mount.
Redfield rings that have the clamping screws coming up from underneath.
They're no big deal now, but it wears a Redfield 5 star 3x9 scope of the day.

Years later, I got ahold a a unfinished Fajen stock for it with the flat sides like a Weatherby.
Beautiful piece of wood that I think came from the same tree as the original one.
It took several weeks, but I cut and added a black ebony wood tip to it and finished it with tru-oil.
It came out real well too, and it has some sort of gold colored minerals in it that stand out with the tru-oil

I'm not that great a shot, but it'd hold right at 1" with anything, even with cast RCBS 170RN and 190SPs.
My kids don't shoot unless I take them, and I don't think they could appreciate it for what it is,
but my sister & BIL and his son do shoot some, and just love it. So I gave it to them.